The present invention generally pertains to antenna systems and is particularly directed to a system for discriminating between signals arriving on the mainbeam of a collecting antenna and signals arriving on the sidelobes of the antenna.
A communications receiver coupled to a collecting antenna receives signals that arrive on either the mainbeam or the sidelobes of the antenna. It is important to be able to discriminate between the signals arriving on the mainbeam and the signals arriving on the sidelobes. This is particularly true in a communications system wherein the antenna is designed to track the direction of arrival of the signal received on the main beam. Although the magnitude of the mainbeam signals are usually sufficiently greater than the magnitude of the sidelobe signals to enable discrimination between the respective received signals based upon their relative magnitudes, in some communication systems and/or environments the magnitudes of the respective received signals are not sufficiently different to enable reliable discrimination between them.